Sunday, September 19, 2010

CLAUDE'S SECOND BOOK

Since there is no miraculous bestowal of
knowledge upon the spirits who pass to the other

plane, the inference from Claude's language was his spiritual
contact with the sources of advanced knowledge, and his
ability to echo some of their teachings, without being alive to
the full purport of that which he was transmitting.

This inference is wholly confirmed by the Second Book.
The expert in the psychic sciences recognizes in it, at once, a
marked advance upon the First. The First Book was the work
of a matriculated student in the great Cosmic University. The
hand of the graduate (the possessor, may we say, of a first
degree?) may be traced in the Second. Claude is in nearer
"touch" with the actualities of the other sphere. He is keenly
anxious to explain its fundamental truths in terms of this life;
and as he is now in closer contact with, and possesses a more
incisive appreciation of, the conditions of the life beyond, he
performs his task well. The chapter on Prayer, particularly its
earlier portion, is a perfect gem.